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Michelle Obama made a remark that seemed to indicate that she had only recently discovered real pride in America, and Samantha Power described Clinton as a deceitful "monster."
AP Photo

A series of missteps by members of Barack Obama's campaign team illustrate that despite a dazzlingly effective year of campaigning, elements of his inner circle are still dangerously new to the maelstrom of presidential politics.

A top foreign policy adviser, Harvard's Samantha Power, resigned from Obama's campaign Friday after describing Hillary Rodham Clinton as a deceitful "monster" during a book tour in the United Kingdom. Obama's key economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, was quoted in a Canadian government memo dismissing Obama's vocal opposition to North American Free Trade Agreement as pure politics. His wife, Michelle, also new to the national stage, was left explaining a remark that seemed to indicate that she had only recently discovered real pride in America. And other members of his core campaign team have committed lesser slips in recent days.

The errors have come at a bad time, as the American public begins to get better acquainted with Obama amidst the backdrop of a historic and hard-fought Democratic presidential contest. Advisers' words — which a few weeks ago would have drawn attention only on political blogs — are now fodder for network news and, worse, for the local newscasts beamed to voters who had paid little attention to the campaign before the circus came to their particular town.

The stumbles may also draw the attention of the party leaders who will ultimately decide the Democratic nomination. As party insiders weigh the ability of Clinton and Obama to compete with Arizona Sen. John McCain in November, a week's worth of stumbles by the normally cool and cerebral Obama brain trust — and their ability to quickly recover — may play a role in the calculus of electablity.

There's little doubt as to the cause of their unforced errors: the sheer novelty of the spotlight.

"I've never been in politics before; I've thought of being on a show like this defending a presidential candidate before, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't agree with him," Power said at the conclusion of a second interview in the United Kingdom, during which she raised another round of questions for Obama's aides by referring to Obama's plan to withdraw troops rapidly from Iraq as merely a "best case scenario."

Power isn't the only one who hasn't done this before. While the Clinton policy team is composed largely of former White House hands, Obama's is studded with academic superstars with limited political experience.

Goolsbee, for instance, "admitted that the past few months have been rather extraordinary for, as he described himself, 'just a professor,'" according to the detailed Canadian government report on his meeting with the consul, other parts of which the Obama campaign has disputed.

Clinton spent the days in the run-up to the Ohio primary repeating the Goolsbee NAFTA story in person and on the radio, suggesting that Obama's commitment to trade regulation is insincere.

On Friday, her campaign scheduled two separate conference calls to attack elements of Power's remarks, between which Power resigned from Obama's campaign.

In one of them, former State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin called it "amateur hour on making foreign policy."

"He can't seem to run a foreign policy team the way it's supposed to run," he said.

Other recent slips have come from more seasoned advisers. Susan Rice, a Clinton administration veteran, offered this clumsy defense of Obama.

"Clinton hasn't had to answer the phone at 3 o'clock in the morning, and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready." Rice said. "They're both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call."

McCain's campaign promptly pounced on the gaffe.

But while Obama's top political advisers have run presidential campaigns before, Obama himself, and his wife, are new to the rigors of presidential politics.

Indeed, that freshness is central to their appeal. They haven't had their authentic, rough and interesting edges ground off by the "freak show" of Beltway politics and media. Mrs. Obama's gaffe is still reverberating on conservative talk radio:

"For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country," she said, though aides later said she was referring to the political system — not the country as a whole.

Her comment marked, among other things, the beginning of the end of a kind of right-wing truce with Obama, who is admired by many conservative pundits. However, he is viewed with suspicion in the Republican grass roots, where false, viral e-mails claiming that he's a Muslim Manchurian candidate circulate like wildfire.

The Obama's, being on the campaign trail for months finally got some real questions - screwed up and now the world knows how empty the suit really is.

And, we are not yet to the semi-finals when the best liar will win. The MSM is finally being forced to ask real questions and expect real answers.

And with gas at $4.00 a gallon and the liberals holding up all exploration or drilling for oil on our properties we continue to buy oil from the Islamofascists. Our incompetent liberals in Congress don't want us to buy oil from Canada's tar sands - So stupid!

Obama has had no missteps up against the Clinton's. He's been a fair campaigner. Now it's time for him to take the gloves off.

He might if he knew how...that is the premsie of the story. He and his team do not have the capacity to fight a political battle the likes in which they are now engaged. This has been simmering under for much of this campaign, and why the Clinton team has pushed the "vetting" question. Not necessarily because there is all of this terrible stuff to vet (even though I still believe there is much to discover), but because he can't handle it. Every time an attack or a concern is lobbed his way, it is like being under the big top - clowns running around everywhere making faces and looking stupid.

This is precisely why the electability argument plays to Clinton now that the media decided to take off the rose-colored glasses. He will continue to look incapable of challenging a Republican, and Superdelegates will move to Hillary as he slides, just like voters.

and of course now the press concentrates on this...not on her mistakes because she whines and cries favoritism...give me a break if you *******s stopped covering this crap and covered real issues we might get somewhere...we may not even vote now...same old dirty politics

This is precisely why the electability argument plays to Clinton now that the media decided to take off the rose-colored glasses. He will continue to look incapable of challenging a Republican, and Superdelegates will move to Hillary as he slides, just like voters.

Do not forget...Obama supporters are loyal to him, not to the party. Hillary will never get Obama's votes...

Not only did Michelle Obama say she was finally proud of her country, then the other day she said America is downright mean. Oh really, Is that why we donate more money to international aid than all other countries combined? Is that why we offer political asylum to just about anyone who asks for it? Not to mention the Obama's Black Pride Church where they empha anything and everything black. If they want to live in a world free of racism that means that they themselves have to participate in the philosophy, not just sit back and complain. She's a loser and I hate her worse than I ever did Hillary.

If we must compare campaigns in such a context, lets look at both sides with the same lens. Lets compare the comments, both calculated and those inadvertently uttered ones, thrown out by Ms Clinton's experienced staff. Place such things on one column. On the next column, place said categoric commentary made by Obama's staff. Look and compare, nice and slow. Then we can speak about this in a cool, collected way. Hillary and her gang have been running a sleazy, nasty campaign of historic significance within the Democratic party. My reaction at witnessing the damage she is causing to my party was to call her some things much uglier than 'monster'. Naive of Powers to think out loud in front of the press, but, I understand her sentiments.

According to the polls on Obama attracts high paying, highly educated men and women , African-American and college students. Well obvious his staff is not to highly educated ,because the words come out, before using their brains. The Obama campaign is a delusional "fairy tale' supported by ill advised people. They state the more educated you are, the less street smart you are. I guess that's true of the Obama campaign. THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK, IT WILL GET YOU IN LESS TROUBLE. To blame their actions because they never worked on a presidental campaign before. They also don't get out much, either.

If we must compare campaigns in such a context, lets look at both sides with the same lens. Lets compare the comments, both calculated and those inadvertently uttered ones, thrown out by Ms Clinton's experienced staff. Place such things on one column. On the next column, place said categoric commentary made by Obama's staff. Look and compare, nice and slow. Then we can speak about this in a cool, collected way. Hillary and her gang have been running a sleazy, nasty campaign of historic significance within the Democratic party. My reaction at witnessing the damage she is causing to my party was to call her some things much uglier than 'monster'. Naive of Powers to think out loud in front of the press, but, I understand her sentiments.